The Black Hand
Page 29
“his dark restless eyes”: Radin, “Detective in a Derby Hat.”
“My name is Petrosino”: There are numerous examples of Petrosino saying this, from Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, pp. 60 and 70, to various accounts of the Carbone case.
“The police department”: Unattributed clipping, Petrosino newspaper archive.
“If he talked music”: Undated clipping from the New York Sun, Petrosino newspaper archive.
“His reputation was”: Michael Fiaschetti, You Gotta Be Rough: The Adventures of Detective Fiaschetti of the Italian Squad (New York: A. L. Burt, 1931), p. 19.
a myth began to grow: The legend is included in the Wikipedia article on Petrosino.
Soon after daybreak: The account of the Barrel Murder is taken from various sources, including Dash, The First Family, chapter 1; and Dickie, Cosa Nostra, pp. 165–70.
“My name is Giovanni Pecoraro”: Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 13.
“Something was changing”: Ibid., p. 29.
“in unlimited esteem”: Ibid., p. 57.
“I who have never”: Ibid., p. 90. Pettaco believed that the quote was a fake but didn’t provide any source for this conclusion.
“the Sicilian wolves”: Unattributed clipping, Petrosino newspaper archive.
“that mysterious”: Mercantile and Financial Times, April 8, 1908.
3. “IN MORTAL DREAD”
“Scores of Italian murderers”: Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 2. Parkhurst dates the diary entry to around the time of the so-called Trunk Murder, the Black Hand slaying of a Jewish peddler, Meyer Weisbard, in January 1901.
A letter was dropped: Unless otherwise noted, this account of the Cappiello case is taken from the New York Herald, September 13, 1903, and subsequent articles in the paper.
“If you don’t meet us”: Quoted in Dickie, Cosa Nostra, p. 171.
“mysterious stranger”: New York Herald, September 13, 1903.
“We are in mortal dread”: Ibid.
On August 2: This account of the Mannino case is drawn from news reports in the New York Times, August 11, August 13, and August 16, 1904; Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1904; Chicago Daily Tribune, August 18, 1904; New York Tribune, August 18 and August 20, 1904.
“Go out and make arrests”: New York Times, August 13, 1904.
“Evidently,” wrote one journalist: Unattributed clipping, Petrosino newspaper archive.
“pulling little Italian boys”: Ibid.
“Stop chasing us”: New York Tribune, August 18, 1904.
“The Mannino kidnapping case”: Undated clipping, Petrosino newspaper archive.
“Five hundred frenzied men”: Brooklyn Eagle, October 8, 1904.
“The ‘Black Hand’ gang”: Unidentified clipping, Petrosino newspaper archive.
“We will not kill”: Ibid.
as many as thirty-five: “Is the Black Hand a Myth or a Terrible Reality?” New York Times, March 3, 1907.
The Black Hand burned: New York Tribune, August 21, 1904.
A bomb exploded on 151st Street: Ibid.
Five girls in East Harlem: Pittsburgh Post, June 6, 1904.
one of their bodies was found: Sidney Reid, “The Death Sign,” The Independent, April 6, 1911.
“cried most of the time”: Washington Post, September 20, 1907.
On August 22: “‘Black Hand’ in Murder,” New York Times, August 29, 1904.
A bomb blew up: “Record of the Nefarious Work of the Black Hand,” New York Evening World, August 11, 1904.
a wealthy Bronx contractor: Unattributed clipping, Petrosino newspaper archive.
“to remember the fate”: Nashville American, October 7, 1904.
“The kidnapping of young Mannino”: Quoted in the Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1904.
“the sound American doctrine”: Quoted in the New York Mail, October 17, 1904.
“Newspapers,” it declared: Nashville American, October 17, 1904.
“He was laughed at”: Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 5.
“The ramifications”: Pittsburgh Post, September 4, 1904.
“Imagine the captain”: McAdoo, Guarding a Great City, pp. 43, 50.
At the turn: Terry Galway, Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics(New York: Liveright, 2014), p. 161.
“The trouble now”: Quoted in Moses, An Unlikely Union, p. 133.
“The sight of a uniform”: Arthur Train, “Imported Crime: The Story of the Camorra in America,” McClure’s 39 (May 1912).
“Do you know”: Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 32.
In Franklin Park: Pittsburgh Post, October 23, 1906.
“Of other crimes”: White, “How the United States Fosters the Black Hand.”
“Petrosino could expect”: Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 5.
“When murder and blackmail”: New York Times, December 30, 1906.
“He endeavored”: Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 2.
“The problem with my people”: Austin Statesman, September 22, 1905.
He “called the victims”: Quoted in Corradini, Joe Petrosino, p. 63.
“The endless frustration”: Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 31.
“At present,” he said: “New York Is Full of Italian Brigands,” New York Times, October 15, 1905.
“He felt abandoned”: Quoted in Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 41.
4. THE MYSTERIOUS SIX
“They finally granted”: Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 59.
“The honest Italian”: New York Times, September 4, 1904.
The last recruit: Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 59.
“the mysterious six”: New York Evening World, April 29, 1907.
“They had no office”: Ibid.
“forlorn”: Ibid.
“to deal with”: Thomas M. Pitkin, The Black Hand: A Chapter in Ethnic Crime (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977), p. 56.
193,296 Italian men: The statistics are taken from a table, “Italian Immigration to the United States by Years,” compiled by the Bureau of the Census, published in Historical Statistics of the U.S., Colonial Times to 1957 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1960), pp. 56–57.
“There are thousands”: New York Times, October 15, 1905.
between 35,000 and 40,000: The numbers come from George E. Pozzetta, “The Italians in New York City, 1890–1914” (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1971), p. 211.
He estimated that 95 percent: Frank Marshall White, “The Passing of the Black Hand,” Century, January 1918.
“The Black Hand”: Frank Marshall White, “The Black Hand in Control in Italian New York,” Outlook, August 16, 1913.
“It seemed like”: Moses, An Unlikely Union, p. 133.
“The eyes are”: Quotations are from the New York Times, December 30, 1906.
Three policemen were guarding: New York Tribune, September 17, 1905.
“If you don’t pay”: Washington Post, September 11, 1905.
“Our society is composed”: New York Times, September 11, 1905.
One evening, the baker: Washington Post, September 11, 1905.
“I’ll go to jail”: New York Times, September 11, 1905.
“Black Hand Is Now the Rage”: This account is from the Pittsburgh Post, September 2, 1904.
In nearby Westfield: Washington Post, October 8, 1905.
When the steamship Sibiria: New York Times, November 9, 1905.
“I swear by the God”: Washington Post, February 16, 1908.
One judge in Baltimore: Baltimore Sun, March 5, 1908.
5. A GENERAL REBELLION
When a butcher: New York Times, October 18, 1905.
In a later case: The case is detailed in the New York Times, September 4, 1907.
“See here,” it began: Austin Statesman, September 26, 1905.
“You know what to expect”: Ibid., September 22, 1905.
“Please, papa”: Unattributed clipping, P
etrosino newspaper archive.
finally unraveled the scheme: Petrosino laid out the scheme in an interview with the New York Times, March 3, 1907.
Petrosino soon discovered: Cincinnati Enquirer, October 19, 1905.
$120 million in property: The figures are from White, “How the United States Fosters the Black Hand.”
“tilted rakishly”: Dash, The First Family, pp. 100, 98.
One such merchant: For Manzella’s story, see the New York Times, March 17, 1909.
“Theirs is a secret”: Pittsburgh Post, September 4, 1904.
On one occasion: The hunchback story is told by an anonymous author in “The Black Hand Scourge,” Cosmopolitan, June 1909.
one gang rented a mailbox: See the case of the banker Angelo Cuneo, reported in the New York Times, December 19, 1905.
When the squad found a few scrawled words: Fiaschetti, You Gotta Be Rough, p. 100.
It was composed: New York Times, September 12, 1905.
“Screams of ‘Black Hand!’”: New York Times, September 29, 1905.
Adolph Horowitz, the president: Detroit Free Press, October 1, 1905.
“Up in Westchester County”: Washington Post, September 16, 1906.
plummeted by 50 percent: Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 70.
“a calmness that is certainly curious”: Pozzetta, “The Italians in New York City, 1890–1914,” p. 206.
“a homeless, drifting little band”: Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 5.
“That little band of zealots”: Ibid.
“He had shown capacity”: Cavone’s story is from “Joe Petrosino’s Men Served City Loyally,” a clipping in the Petrosino newspaper archive from the New York Evening World dated “Saturday, April” with no date or year visible.
“Every possible handicap”: Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 5.
the officers in charge: Ibid.
“young and ambitious” roundsman: This account is taken from the New York Times, October 18, 1905.
“rusticating in Greenpoint”: New York Tribune, October 4, 1905.
“‘The Dago’ had become”: Moses, An Unlikely Union, p. 136.
6. EXPLOSION
owned by the Gimavalvo brothers: For the story of the Gimavalvos and Petrosino’s other open cases, see the New York Times, October 18, 1905.
“My name is Salvatore Spinella”: Spinella’s story was widely reported in the press of the day. See the New York Times, July 25, 1908; Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 6; and White, “The Black Hand in Control.”
“who say they are not afraid”: New York Times, October 18, 1905. The story of the fruit peddler is from the same source.
“was unanimous for murder”: New York Times, October 19, 1905.
“The Italians pay their taxes”: Quoted in Pitkin, The Black Hand, p. 114.
“If the police had been paid”: Reid, “The Death Sign,” p. 711.
a “terrific explosion”: This account is from the New York Times, October 18, 1905.
“They are getting bolder”: This interview appeared in the New York Times, October 18, 1905.
“This country”: Frank H. Nichols, “The Anarchists in America,”New Outlook, August 10, 1901, p. 859.
“Panic reigned in Washington”: Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 1.
“I have just the man”: Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 50.
Petrosino walked back: The details of Petrosino’s investigation of the anarchists are taken from ibid., pp. 48–55; Radin, “Detective in a Derby Hat”; and Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 1.
“as copiously and hysterically”: Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 1.
“No native-born American”: White, “How the United States Fosters the Black Hand.”
“I warned him!”: Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 53.
On a hot August day: The details of the Marx affair are from the New York Tribune, August 21, 1904.
“You may think”: Brooklyn Eagle, October 19, 1905.
“If Detective Prosini”: New York Times, October 21, 1905.
7. WAVE
brightly colored hand-drawn portraits: McAdoo, Guarding a Great City, p. 149.
Delivery wagons trundled down: This description of the scene is based on Dash, The First Family, p. 60.
high wages: Gay Talese, Unto the Sons (New York: Knopf, 2006), Kindle edition.
There was even one poster: Elizabeth Ewen, Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars: Life and Culture on the Lower East Side, 1890–1925 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1985), p. 55.
a ball of yarn: Salvatore Lupo, History of the Mafia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), p. 202.
“Your railroads”: Quoted ibid., p. 91.
“My attention was drawn”: Quoted in Moquin, A Documentary History of the Italian-Americans, p. 120.
the Irish and other nationalities: Lupo, History of the Mafia, p. 94.
In October 1906, a Black Hander: New York Times, December 29, 1907.
In Pennsylvania: Ibid., March 13, 1906.
in another village: Ibid., February 12, 1906.
Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker: Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1906.
“The murderous spirit”: Ibid.
“sneered at the officers”: Washington Post, January 26, 1906.
“WHOLESALE MURDERS”: New York Times, August 21, 1906.
composed in Latin: Baltimore Sun, March 3, 1908. It was sent to Charles Rosenfeld of the Baldwin Detective Agency.
The affair began: For an account of the threats, see the Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 31, 1906. A similar campaign addressed to a private individual is recorded in the Austin Statesman, February 5, 1906.
That same winter: The Wesson case was widely reported in the press. This account is drawn from various newspapers, including the St. Louis Dispatch, August 5 and August 19, 1906; the Boston Daily Globe, January 28, 1906; and the Washington Post, August 8, 1906.
“Half a dozen”: Washington Post, August 8, 1906.
a steel vault: St. Louis Dispatch, August 19, 1906.
“The writer of the Black Hand”: Boston Daily Globe, January 28, 1906.
“My dear Dr. Marvin”: Quoted in Claire Bond Potter, War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998), p. 111.
even the heir: Atlanta Constitution, April 7, 1909.
A justice of the peace: Washington Post, February 16, 1908.
Count István Tisza: Ibid., January 9, 1905.
“A reign of murder”: New York Tribune, May 27, 1906.
“From the moment”: Cincinnati Enquirer, September 30, 1907.
In the tiny Pennsylvania town: Both estimates—from Hillsville and Newcastle—are from the Pittsburgh Post, May 9, 1907.
Benjamin de Gilda: De Gilda’s story is from the Philadelphia North American, August 17, 1908.
On June 23, 1906: Pittsburgh Post, June 24, 1906.
In West Mount Vernon: New York Tribune, December 19, 1907.
Mrs. Fiandini: Washington Post, January 28, 1908.
John Benteregna was a barber: This account is from the Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1908.
There were instances: Robert E. Park, Old World Traits Transplanted (New York: Harper, 1921), p. 257, quoting the Bollettino della Sera from January 29, 1910.
After being threatened: For the case of Vincenzo Buffardo, see the New York Times, May 15, 1907.
“The far-reaching power”: Parkhurst, “The Perils of Petrosino,” part 2.
“Across deserts, rivers, seas”: “The Long Arm of the Black Hand,” unattributed clipping, Petrosino newspaper archive.
Kidnapped in New York: Nashville American, October 25, 1908.
The plot of A Midnight Escape: Hartford Courant, November 8, 1907.
Bat Masterson: Pittsburgh Post, March 29, 1905.
“the electrifying touch”: Quoted in Pitkin, The Black Hand, p. 68.
If a “mast
er hand”: New York Times, June 28, 1908.
Every payday: Ibid., August 11, 1907.
When the children: Lawrence P. Gooley, Lyon Mountain: The Tragedy of a Mining Town (Rutland, Vt.: Bloated Toe, 2004), p. 242.
“There are people”: Ibid., p. 235.
“I lived in fear”: Ibid., p. 242. Testimony of Mrs. Victoria Robinson.
Some of the Helltown thugs: Cincinnati Enquirer, July 29, 1909.
“Use not clubs”: Baltimore Sun, February 12, 1908.
“mustered up courage enough”: Baltimore Sun, May 1, 1907.
In the shack: The Independent, February 1, 1906, p. 244. See also the Los Angeles Times, January 24, 1906.
8. THE GENERAL
One Monday: This account comes from “Willie’s Own Story of His Kidnapping,” New York Times, October 10, 1906.
“His eyes”: Chicago Daily Tribune, October 14, 1908.
“a foot high”: Dash, The First Family, p. 68.
“I will give nothing”: This account is from Reid, “The Death Sign,” p. 711.
around $154,000: Michael Scott, The Great Caruso (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1988), p. 168.
“a starved panther”: Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1907.
“He is a soldier”: Ibid.
“major domo, drum major”: Princeton (Minn.) Union, April 4, 1907.
“friction and fire”: Ibid.
“The White House was not”: Ibid.
“It is said”: Ibid.
“which render it”: Ibid.
He certainly: Pitkin, The Black Hand, p. 64.
“It’s going to be”: Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1907.
“I’ll watch myself”: Ibid.
“The people of New York”: Princeton (Minn.) Union, April 4, 1907.
“At last”: Pettaco, Joe Petrosino, p. 69.
He’d grown up: For Woods’s background, see the New York Times, August 31, 1907.
Before Woods accepted: Boston Daily Globe, July 25, 1907.
“gave a strong impression”: Undated clipping from the Christian Science Monitor, Petrosino newspaper archive.
“the greatest overlord”: Thomas M. Henderson, Tammany Hall and the New Immigrants: The Progressive Years (New York: Arno Press, 1976), pp. 4, 10.
“The Tammany man”: Obituary, New York Times, December 23, 1909.